The Dragon and the Shield Maiden
by Midoriko-sama
Summary: Gift for Curiosity Redux; set in her Wild Hearts AU - Astrid is woken up by whimpering in the night, and sits down to tell a story.


_**This is a one-shot gift I wrote for Curiosity Redux – hiilikedragons on Tumblr – because she's special. Then it took long enough for us to communicate because the internet goblins kept eating our emails that her birthday and MY birthday came around (turns out, they are only 4 days apart), so this is sort of a birthday present too. This is set in the universe of her fic 'Wild Hearts', a feral!Hiccup AU. **_

_**Without further ado, here it is.**_

* * *

_**The Dragon and the Shield Maiden.**_

Her mother had warned her, though Astrid had scoffed, that once you became a mother, your life changed.

Astrid had nearly scorned those women she'd seen her entire lives, jumping at the mere murmur of the bundle of limbs that they carried tied to their body, often smelling, always a hindrance. She'd dreaded having children of her own, cursed the day she'd have to give birth, and be saddled with one of those things tied to her body all day. She'd looked with horror upon the prospect of her body changing, behaving beyond her control, cutting into her known life where she could no longer train like she wanted, run like she should, fight like she knew she could. It had been a nightmare she'd often woken up from, panting and sweating. She'd known that she would have to do her duty to her husband - if, when, she married Snotlout - and it had been one of the things that had gripped her stomach in a cold hand hardest - together with the thoughts about the process of _making_ the child.

Boy had her tune changed.

She was awoken out of a pleasant dream by a tiny sound. Her body took a moment to orient itself, but she knew what the sound was instantly. It wasn't intrusive, or even stridulent and annoying, even though the noises of their child had changed from an infant's mewling to a baby's full cry quite a while ago. They were blessed, she supposed, with a baby that slept a great deal and cried little, but that didn't change the fact that her little darling was whimpering.

Carefully, she pushed herself to a sitting position. The moonlight was striping their room through the shutters, the waxing light strong and telling her that it was still full night, nowhere near dawn. Her husband's arms were around her, his faint snores puffing against her back as she sat up, doing her best not to disrupt him. He was trying so hard, doing his best and more in his new role in the village. Since their marriage, he at least had a safe haven every night with her breast as his pillow. When she became pregnant, it was hard to get him to leave her, even when his new duties to the villagers and dragons called. Now, he did everything he could to cater to all sides of his new life, make the village and the dragons comfortable, while also trying to come home as early as possible to spend time with her and their child. It had the effect of making her love him so much more, and at the same time, leaving him wrung out, warn and dead tired. His braid was half undone, hair hanging limply on his face, and she had to resist the urge to brush it off lest she wake him up. He'd insist on going to their child himself if she did, and she knew he needed the rest.

Slipping out of his lax arms as gently as possible, she slipped a fur shawl around her, padding silently across to the crib. Toothless was nosing the child, making the whimpering, hiccupping noises less frequent, but Astrid knew that the poor dragon couldn't keep the baby's full wail at bay forever - after all, no fury was greater than that of a hungry babe.

She unbuttoned her front with practiced ease before lifting the child. The gurgling started right away - so, so much her husband, grievances almost instantly forgiven and forgotten even at this tender age. She sat on her chair, resting against the high back as she pulled the shawl around them both. Toothless, as he usually did, circled the chair twice before he settled around them, his broad face on the armrest and large loving eyes intent on the kicking baby. Tiny face and fisted hands waved around, button nose rubbing up and down her front until she gently guided the teat to the heart-shaped mouth, a sigh escaping as soon as the milk began reaching a very hungry belly.

Big, big eyes looked up at her as her baby nursed. She had fallen in love once, with her husband, in the most unexpected way and time. But the moment her little one had been given to her, still stained from the birth, weeping desperately from the ordeal of it all, the trembling in her arms and legs from the pain and exhaustion had vanished, and the trembling in her heart had begun with alacrity. She understood those women then, how they jumped to attention, how they were at their children's back and call. She understood, then, why they wore their little ones on a sling around their chest or back, because the idea of letting go of this little life she and her husband had made had terrified her beyond belief. She'd fallen in love a second time when the big, wandering eyes of her child, dribbling large fat tears and sniffing and hiccupping, had looked at her desperately, and then settled down to nurse as if it was … it was perfect.

Astrid rocked her body gently, letting the baby grab her finger in a tiny, tiny hand. Small fingers, so perfect, flexed and fanned against the pad of her pointer, and Astrid couldn't help the smile that came to her face.

'You know,' she whispered, 'My mamma told me a secret a few hours ago. Don't tell anyone.' Large eyes blinked up at her, shining at the mere sight of her. Astrid thought that only her husband's eyes would ever do that; she'd been wrong again. 'Oh yes, mamma has a mamma, isn't that strange?' And who would have ever seen the hard, crusty warrior making sweet voices at her child? Astrid herself certainly hadn't. 'But anyway, the secret is that nursing babies love stories. Do you want a story?'

The small fist that wasn't nestled against her belly, squashed between her and the babe's own body, waved around, and Astrid smiled down at the child. Her finger, now released, relocated to brushing against his chubby cheek. As the nursing started again once the baby settled down, Astrid returned to rocking gently, murmuring in a low voice.

'There was once a Shield Maiden,' she began, a story she had begun creating in her mind for the past several hours finally finding word. 'She was cold and hard, and she was sad. She lived in a village much like this one, but everyone was sad there, because dragons were cruel to them, attacked them and took their food, burned down their homes and stole their little children.'

A sad croon beside her almost made her jump as she realised she had forgotten the second half of her audience. Since both of her hands were busy, she tipped her neck slightly, allowing Toothless to rub his head against hers and find his own comfort. The night fury took the offer at once, returning to the armrest with a mournful, pleading glance at her to continue her tale.

'But one dragon was different,' she went on, returning her eyes to her child. Her much abused teat was still giving milk, and large blinking eyes were still on her face in rapt attention. 'He was a special dragon, you see, who had come to the Shield Maiden's home on a mission. One rainy day, she was out hunting in the woods, and the Shield Maiden found him and nearly shot him down. Then to her amazement, he started talking to her.

'"I want to help save your people,"' he told her. At first she was scared of him, and didn't trust him. Then time went on, and she began to see that he was a good, kind dragon. One of his brothers was injured, and he got the Shield Maiden and her friends to help him. Slowly, she began to realise that the other dragons were good, too.

The more the Shield Maiden spoke to this dragon, the more she noticed how she wasn't sad anymore, how she didn't hate the dragons anymore. She realised that everyone on the island could be happy, too, if only they listened to him. The Shield Maiden realised then that she had fallen in love with this dragon.'

Her teat fell out of the baby's mouth with a pop, and Astrid paused in her story to move the tiny head to the other one. Her fingers ran along soft blonde curls that were going more and more strawberry as the days passed, and she ran her pads around the bald spot at the crown from the child's time in the cradle, making the baby wriggle in delight. She chuckled and went on.

'The Shield Maiden was distraught - because how could she love a dragon? The happiness in her heart was also sadness, because she knew that they could never be together, even if she also know the dragon loved her just as much.' Astrid sighed, momentarily lost in memory. She looked at the wall opposite, vivid recollection of that very difficult time resurfacing. 'What she didn't know was that the dragon she loved also had a secret. One night, he visited her in her room, and shed his scales to show her that in truth, he was a human in dragon form!' The baby gurgled, tiny feet kicking around excitedly in response to her tone. She giggled helplessly at the antics; so much like her husband. 'And not only was he a human, but he was heir to the throne in the Shield Maiden's village. She had fallen in love with their lost prince.

'"You're cursed,"' she told him, and he shook his head.

'"No, I'm blessed, because the dragons trusted me enough with their secrets, and now I can save our home." he replied.

So the Shield Maiden decided to help him. She began speaking to the people in her home, trying to teach them that the dragons weren't enemies, that they were good, kind creatures. But no one listened to her. The people in her home grew angry with her, and in the scuffle that followed, the Shield Maiden got very hurt.'

Toothless crowed again, his butt wiggling and making the entire chair rock. Astrid smiled down at him appeasingly.

'The dragon, out in the woods, heard her cries and came to rescue her. With his injured brother, now cured, they took her to his nest, and there he helped her become better again.' Toothless crooned a lot more serenely at this, running his nose against her arm and nearly dislodging her shawl. Astrid snorted at the over-affectionate reptile, pulling the shawl back around herself and the baby.

'Once she was well again, she awoke to tell him that she loved him, and that no matter what would happen, he would be the only one she could marry. The dragon promised the same, and so they returned to her home, ready to face the people together, and try to make peace between the people and the dragons possible...'

Astrid turned back to the baby, face half-covered between the shawl and her breast, and found her little one asleep, big wandering eyes once again shut. His lips were still nursing air, the darling drinking in his dreams. Her heart skipped, and she fell in love all over again.

She was tying her buttons up, wiping her wet breasts on the front of her sleeping dress and gathering more of the shawl about her baby when a quiet voice drifted from the bed.

'You didn't wake me,' her husband's voice complained, eyes still puffy and trying blink sleep away.

'You need your sleep,' she replied, trying to cut the discussion at the bud. She rose from her seat, stepping over Toothless. She stopped at the crib, but then thought better of it and took the baby with her to bed. The tired smile on her husband's face as he put his arms around them both was its own reward, but the warmth and comfort that settled in her own chest as her baby's head rested against her heart and her own ear against her husband's was all-enveloping. Her lids started falling, a small smile on her lips.

'You tell a great story. I learn something new about you every day.'

Astrid's smile went wider, even as she let her eyes fall shut. 'Oh, you have no idea. I can't give up all my secrets at once. You'd get bored of me.'

He snorted, and dipped his head to kiss the mark on her neck. 'Never,' he said emphatically. Astrid knew very well that his devotion wasn't faked in the slightest, any more than hers was. With a sigh, she let herself rest back against him.

'Love you,' she murmured, allowing herself to fall happily asleep. She wasn't sure if she was speaking to her dragon husband, or the little one they'd made together.

=0=

**For everyone wondering what happened to my own writing – don't worry, I've not chucked it aside. I've actually just completed the first draft of Meeting to the end – wrote The End on it too – and I just have to edit and let my beta Thaipothetical-Situations go through it before I start updating regularly again.**

**Cheers all.**


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